DI BENEDETTI, Pietro. Traduzione poetiche al nobilissimo signore Luca Giustiniani.
Genova, S.e., 1783.

In-4 (247 x 175 mm), XVI-136 pp.
Full red morocco, fillet and roulette framing the covers, decorated ribbed spine, compartments decorated with a pomegranate in the centre, green morocco title label, roulette on the edges, gilt edges (Milanese binding attributable to Luigi Lodigiani).

First edition.
A precious copy enriched with five original drawings executed in black ink and grey wash: on the frontispiece, then on pages 6, 31, 41 and 73. The frontispiece reproduces the coat of arms from the vignette on the title page, namely that of the Giustiniani family of Genoa. The next depicts a boat moored near the coast. The third depicts a fisherman heading out to sea. The fourth depicts a view of a city and, finally, the last depicts a boat returning to port.

A superb engraving has also been pasted onto page XVI to serve as a tailpiece, which is not normally present, as shown in the digitised copy held by the National Central Library in Florence (Italy). 

Browned pages for the engravings between pages 42/43, 46/47 and 56/57, without affecting the engravings themselves. These are also additions from a clearly French work of the period.

Superb copy; probably from the Giustiniani collection, considering the frontispiece and the date of the work, which corresponds to what Squarzoni notes in the posthumous collections of Prince Benedetto Giustiniani: ‘Most of the printed books were published in the 18th century, which shows a particular interest in what was new and interesting throughout Europe [...] Finally, poetry occupied a prominent place in a family that, since the beginning of the 18th century, had counted Arcadians among its members.’

Passano, Supplementi al dizionario del Melzi, 339 ; Squarzoni, La Collezione GIustiniani, II, 216-250.